Congress seems to be drowning in allegations after former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai claimed that UPA politicians forced him to leave out names from his reports on Coalgate and Commonwealth Games scams.
"Politicians came to my home and told me not to name some people and to protect some others in connection with the CWG and coal allocation reports," Rai told The Times of India, while discussing his upcoming book "Not Just An Accountant".
Although Rai refused to name those who came at his doorstep and "pressurised" him to drop names from his reports on scams, he has mentioned about the "messages" dropped by these people in his book.
And to make sure that some names do not appear on Rai's report, UPA politicians approached Rai's colleagues, asking them to convince him into agreeing to do what was being asked by the coalition.
"My colleagues were encouraged to talk to me, my colleagues meaning bureaucrats," he stressed.
Rai pointed out that he came under tremendous pressure, during the meetings of the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee.
"But the real pressure which came to me was in Parliament, during the Public Accounts Committee meeting."
Rai further disclosed that in order to survive, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took certain decisions that submerged the exchequer under huge losses, though he clarified that Singh had to take those decisions under pressure, mostly caused by coalition politics.
"See the PM is the primus inter pares or the first among equals. He has to take the last call, which sometimes he did, sometime he didn't," Rai said "Everything cannot be sacrificed only to remain in power. Governance cannot be sacrificed at the altar of compulsion of coalition politics."
Rai's book is not the first one to have stained UPA of late. Last month ex-Congress veteran Natwar Singh had also targeted Congress President Sonia Gandhi saying she restrained from going ahead as Prime Minister in 2004 under pressure from his son Rahul Gandhi.
